The USA Hockey National Team Development Program would face significant challenges on a number of fronts in Canada. For starters, the creation of a central program for U-17 and U-18 players wouldn’t be universally endorsed by the game’s various stakeholders — and that’s putting it mildly.

Among other things, the long-established junior leagues wouldn’t be keen on losing the country’s best 16- and 17-year-old players to, in essence, national all-star teams. There would also be questions about who those teams would play, how they’d be funded, its locale etc., etc.

So we’ll concede all those points but that doesn’t alter one inescapable truth. Since its inception more than 20 years ago, the NTDP has evolved into a model developmental program that challenges many of the game’s existing orthodoxies while providing a steady stream of star-level players to the next level and, ultimately, the NHL.

That’s been true going back to the early- and mid-aughts when players such as Patrick Kane, Ryan Kesler and Phil Kessel went through the training centre, then located in Ann Arbor, Mich. But this year the NTDP enters new and frightening territory with a draft class that has already staked out a place in the game’s lore.

And if you don’t believe that, just pay attention when the first round of the NHL Entry Draft goes down at Rogers Arena in eight days.

“I’ve seen them 30-plus times over the last two years and I think it’s a generational team,” said TSN scouting guru and former NHL GM Craig Button. “Just look at this group of players. It speaks volumes about the players and the program.”

Yes, just look at the players from the NTDP U-18 team who will have an unprecedented impact on the first half of the first round.

It all starts with the transcendent Jack Hughes, the presumptive first overall pick; runs to goal-scoring machine Cole Caufield; to impact centres Trevor Zegras and Alex Turcotte; and dynamic winger Matthew Boldy who’ll all go in the first 12 picks. Throw in defenceman Cam York and goalie Spencer Knight who also figure to go early and you’ll be hearing a lot about the NTDP when the bingo calling starts.

There’s also good reason for that. This year’s U-18 team — ’01s in the game’s vernacular owing to the year of their birth date — were under considerable scrutiny before this season started and their most notable achievement may be been exceeding the weighty expectations they were under.

Playing a mix of USHL and NCAA teams along with international tournaments, the U-18s went 48-12-2-2 this year, which was impressive enough. But they also went 10-6-1 against NCAA competition beating top-ranked St. Cloud State and University of Minnesota-Duluth on successive weekends when Hughes was at the world juniors.

That’s a team of 17-year-olds beating elite university teams that have 22- and 23-year-olds in their lineup without its best player.

“Every team had us circled,” said U-18 coach John Wroblewski. “There are no nights off for this team.”

Now, on some level, this season’s U-18 team represents an extraordinary moment in a cycle that will be impossible to sustain. As Button said: “I guarantee you we won’t be talking about next year’s (U-18) team the same way.”

But there’s also something going on in Plymouth, now the home of the NTDP that merits further examination.

The program was started in 1996 in response to a series of disappointing showings internationally for the Americans. Wroblewski, then a sturdy right-winger, was part of the first class before attending one Canucks’ camp in ’03 and moving on to coach in the minors.

Wroblewski returned to the developmental program in 2016 and advises things have changed considerably since his playing days.

Trevor Zegras from the U.S.A. Hockey National Team Development Program.

“Calling it rag-tag might be a little strong but it was thrown together,” Wroblewski said. “My dad heard they were holding tryouts and I just showed up. They didn’t know anything about me.”

He now oversees a program that borrowed liberally from the Swedish model but has developed its own methodology. There are a minimum of four practice sessions per week that can last up to two hours. There are video and dryland training sessions and a nutritionist on site. The weekends are generally reserved for games then it’s Groundhog Day for the players.

Still, it’s difficult to argue with the results. The young Americans dropped a 3-2 decision to Russia in the semifinal of the recent World U-18 championship before they blitzed Canada in the bronze-medal game. That marked the 16th year in a row they’ve earned medals at the U-18s. They’ve won gold in seven of the last 10.

“At every age and every level there has to be an emphasis on getting better during the season,” said Wroblewski. “I think with some teams and programs there are developmental opportunities that are left unturned. I think our sport is still antiquated in some respects.

“A lot of teams are concentrating on their next game or how to recruit the next class. We just think about getting the players better.”

That one will go over well at Hockey Canada.

Which brings us back to our original question, would it work here? The idea, apparently, has been discussed according to one source but it didn’t gain a lot of traction.

The resources available to the NTDP, moreover, are available to any Canadian team that plays internationally. The difference is those teams come together sporadically for various selection and training camps. The American team is together throughout the year.

“Obviously you don’t have the cohesion in a short-term tournament you have with guys playing together all year long,” said Vancouver Giants’ coach Mike Dyck who’ll be coaching the Canadian U-18s at the Hlinka-Gretzky tournament in August. “But there are plusses and minuses for both systems.”

No question. As one veteran hockey man said: “Say you’re lucky enough to be one of the 23 players (in the program). There are still only six guys in the top-six and a handful of those guys play on the power play. You don’t develop that way.”

Unless, of course, you’re one of the chosen few. Then a world of opportunities are laid at your feet.